The UAE has unveiled its plan to send an unmanned probe to Mars in 2021 to study the atmosphere of the Red Planet. The first Arab space probe to Mars has been named Al Amal, or ‘Hope’, and will create mankind’s first integrated model of the Red Planet’s atmosphere. [...] The probe will orbit the Red Planet until at least 2023, with an option to extend the mission until 2025. It will send back more than 1000 GB of data to be analysed by teams of researchers in the UAE, and shared freely with more than 200 institutions worldwide for the benefit of thousands of space specialists. [More at link]
The flight plan calls for a launch in 2020, with arrival the following year. The mission’s U.S. scientific-academic partners include the University of Colorado; the University of California, Berkeley; and Arizona State University. [More at links]
Writing in Forbes, science reporter Bruce Dorminey says, “The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency’s plan to send a compact car-sized probe into orbit around Mars appears to have a dual purpose. With last week’s announcement of its blueprints and science goals for the mission now set for launch in July 2020, the UAE signaled that the probe will secure the Gulf state’s role in both the international planetary science community and the global space technology sector…” [More at link]